FR8DG: yea that's what I had been reading and hearing from a buddy who works there.

AboveAndBeyond: that's what I have been reading. Aviationinterviews.com has been very helpful so far. I'm interested to find out if they have added a sim ride. I wonder if its new to help save on cost down the road with too many people washing out?

Any recent interviewees here at can say either way....

Thanks,

Runner

 

A couple of previous guys on here mentioned that they didnt have to do a sim eval.

The website says that you have to have the CTP course and your written completed prior to interview, but an email from the recruiter says otherwise.

 

I interviewed about 9 months ago and the paperwork said that there would be a sim evaluation then as well. They may change it at any time, but I have not heard of a sim eval in the last year, even though it is on the HR paperwork.

 

I don't think there is a problem with too many people washing out. The wash out rate is really pretty low.

 

There is no sim eval that I am aware of and I'm not sure what would leave anyone to believe there is a high washout rate? One of the reasons it is taking longer than usual to get pilots through IOE is that the company did not anticipate the higher than average pass rate. My class has had roughly an 85% completion rate and only a couple washed out for failing their PC... Not too shabby.

 

I just LOL'd so hard. Are you REALLY going to drink the company kool-aid and say that training is taking 5 months to complete because of a HIGHER than expected pass rate??? Are you kidding me?? Why not just own up say the company is struggling with the growth and the sub par applicants are taking 80 hours of IOE in extreme cases to get through initial IOE? I've heard the average is 2-4 trips of IOE to get through initial not including differences. There's just a lack of personnel to handle of all this. It's very simple.

 

Actually, the company did tell the MEC that they were expecting only 20-22 people to go through IOE per class, and the number is closer to 27. They said that it was "PART" of the reason for the big wait to start IOE. This is one of the most ridiculous things that I have heard, but supposedly it is true. I can't imagine that too many people passing ever being a bad thing, but that is what was said. In truth, large class sizes compounded by the loss of many LCA's in the last year, is the reason for the long wait.

On average, people are taking 30 or so hours to finish OE. That is not terrible. Surely some are taking a little longer due to the fact that they have to wait 2+ months from sims to IOE. Anyone would be rusty if they had 2 months off. There are a couple people that don't finish IOE, and that is to be expected. If they can't hack it, drop them. It has happened, no one will argue that it hasn't, but it is only a couple per month at the most.

There are some that do wash out, and take more than 40 hours. More than half, however, are previously typed guys and breeze through with no issues at all and finish in 25 hours. They are FAR from sub-par applicants.

I would argue that the applicants at the regionals as a whole in the last 6 months are FAR superior to applicants from a few years ago. There are no more 250 hour FO's like many airlines had just a few years ago. The mean applicant at PSA has 5000 hours with prior 121 experience. Sure, there are some brand new CFI's with the bare minimums, but they are at every regional.

I will also say that everyone takes 2-3 trips. Personally, my first trip was 3 days, in which I blocked 13 hours. Me second trip was 3 days, with 3 DH's in it, and I blocked 9 hours. I didn't hit the 25 hour mark until my 3rd trip, and was signed off at 27 hours.

 

You guys crack me up. The company decides at the last minute to start hiring check airman to deal with the increased number of trainees, and on top of that your check airman are getting hired by mainline. Except for one or two senior check airman who bypassed the flow, most of them only have 8 years at the company. Some of them who are in the current check airman class are just over 4 years at PSA.

 

I was lucky. The 4 LCA's that I flew with all had over 7 years with the company, and they are still here.

The delay in training is 99% due to the lack of planning in the company. There were too few LCA's to begin with, and then some started leaving for other jobs. It is a difficult bottleneck to clear.

If the company had planned better from the beginning, this would not be occurring.

 

It would benefitical for the industry if psa could NOT staff the airplanes.